31

When Nathan woke up, the clock read two in the morning. He searched for Suzanne, but she was no longer by his side.

He heard her crying and knew where she was. She was in the bathroom, completely naked under the shower, scrubbing her skin vigorously.

"Babe, stop… you can hurt yourself," he said, approaching her.

"Make them go away, Nathan, make them go away," she sobbed.

He knew what she was referring to: those horrible bruises on her body caused by that bastard.

He took a towel and wrapped it around her, then carried her to the bed, but her crying didn’t stop.

He took her hands in his and then placed a warm kiss on each one.

"Shh… it’s over, calm down, sweetheart, I won’t let anything happen to you," he whispered in her ear tenderly.

"I feel disgusted," she whispered in a broken voice.

"I swear he’ll pay dearly for this, darling," he gently stroked her hair.

She pulled away from him and looked at him angrily, as she still hadn't forgotten the reason why she ended up at that bar.

"I hate you," she said, deceiving herself.

"I know, I should never have let this happen," he sighed.

"I hate you," she repeated, and tears rolled down her cheeks again.

"You don't know how much I regret causing all this," he said sincerely, feeling a lump in his throat.

"You don't feel anything, you're a heartless man," she spat at him, not knowing the stab of pain her words caused him.

Even he was surprised to feel that emotion. It scared him, as this girl was awakening emotions he hadn't felt in a long time.

"Babe, calm down, I can’t stand seeing you cry," he swallowed hard, uncomfortable.

"Leave, leave me alone."

"You're not in a condition to be alone," he retorted.

"Leave, Nathan."

"No," he said firmly, approached her, and held her tenderly in his arms.

She felt herself falling apart again, but at the same time, Nathan's arms were the refuge where she wanted to be. She had so many mixed emotions that she didn’t know what to do.

"Don't leave me," she whispered with a trembling voice.

"I won't, I'm here with you."

"What if he comes back?"

"He won't, that bastard will wish he had never been born. No one touches what's mine."

He laid her down on the bed and wrapped his arms around her. They stayed like that until she fell asleep again.

Nathan watched her closely and told himself that she was very beautiful. Although he already knew that, she was so pure and innocent that it hurt him to see her like this: so fragile, scared, and broken.

When Suzanne woke up, she realized she was still wrapped in the towel.

Nathan was sleeping peacefully next to her, his arms around her. She got out of bed very carefully so as not to wake him; it was quite a struggle to get free from his grasp.

She went into the bathroom and took a long shower, feeling down and with a tremendous headache.

She got out of the tub to grab a towel and then saw her reflection in the mirror: her eyes swollen from crying so much, her lip split, and her face pale...

Then it was as if a tape was playing in her head, everything was so clear. She closed her eyes and wished everything would disappear, but that guy's voice still echoed in her head, whispering all the things he would do to her.

She couldn't shake it from her mind, her body trembled from crying, and strong arms held her. She didn't need to open her eyes; she knew it was Nathan, his skin's scent was unmistakable.

"You need to be strong and forget," he whispered.

"I can't, Nathan," she sobbed. "All those bad moments are still in my mind. I still feel his hands on my skin, and no matter how many times I shower, I still feel dirty."

Nathan had never been in a situation like this; he didn't know what to do.

He picked her up and carried her back to the bed, where he hugged her and whispered comforting words to calm her down. It was the only thing he could think of to do.

"Do you feel better?" he asked after a while.

"Yes," she whispered.

He helped her get dressed, cursing under his breath as he saw the bruises on her body. He had insisted on taking her to the doctor, but she had refused outright, and he had no choice but to respect her decision.

"You can't go on like this," he said after a while.

"And what do you want? You want me to be happy?

"Crying so much isn't good for you. You can see a specialist..."

"Why are you acting like you care about me?" she said angrily, pulling away from him.

"I've always cared about you, Suzanne."

"That's not true, you treated me like a cheap whore," she said with pain.

"I'm sorry," he said regretfully.

"You sorry! You didn't have to go out almost naked on the street. Do you even imagine what I felt, what people were saying when they saw me like that? The rude comments I had to endure!" she burst out.

"At that moment, I was very angry, I didn't think about that," he said, not understanding why she was reproaching him now.

"You only think about yourself, you're selfish," she spat, "and on top of that, when I got to the company, I found that scene..."

"Enough," Nathan interrupted her.

He felt quite guilty because he knew that what had happened to her was partly his responsibility.

"What I expected was for you to apologize to me," Suzanne whispered with a broken voice.

"I was going to, it was very hard for me to treat you that way, but you lied to me, and that's something I can't stand," he explained, frowning. "I hate lies. I know you were checking my phone, and I couldn't act like nothing happened after that. I don't like people meddling in my private things.”

"You planned it all, didn't you?" she gritted her teeth. "You wanted me to see you with that woman in the office."

"Don't be ridiculous. She was just a girl I hooked up with once, and since then, she's been obsessed with me."

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"It's the truth. Nothing happened between her and me. If I'm explaining this to you, it's because we have a contract, and one of the rules is that we both have to be faithful until it ends," he said seriously, starting to get annoyed. "Since I've been with you, I haven't been with anyone else."

"That's a lie! I saw the message on your phone!" she said, blushing. "I know I shouldn't have, but I was curious. You're so secretive."

"That message was sent by a client with whom I had just signed a deal," he said grimly.

"What?!" she exclaimed, red with embarrassment.

"Next time, ask. Maybe we could have avoided all this, and you wouldn't have been at risked of being raped. Imagine what would have happened if I hadn't arrived in time. You were very immature," he reprimanded her seriously, in a cold tone of voice.

She burst into tears again, and suddenly they heard a knock at the door that startled them.

Nathan growled in frustration because he hadn't meant to make her cry again, but he said nothing and went downstairs to see who was arriving at that hour of the morning.

He was surprised to see the figure behind the door.

"Grandpa…?" he didn't finish speaking when a sharp slap crossed his face.